Getting to New Delhi

I never knew so many people travelled to India until our office tried to book our flights. Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines - you name the airline, it was full on the day that we wanted to leave and the date that we ideally wanted to come back.

We finally booked our flight on Cathay Pacific and this meant getting to New Delhi via Hong Kong (this was before we even heard of SARS!). You'll have to get a visa to go to India, by the way. In our case, no personal appearance was required - we just submitted all the needed documentation.

So it was a more than one hour flight to Hong Kong and a more than 6-hour flight to New Delhi. There's a two and a half hour difference between Manila and India. When travelling to and from India (at least if you're based in Asia) be prepared to be at the airport at ungodly hours. We arrived at 2am and left for Manila at 4am. Other participants in the training we attended had similar stories. So if you need to attend to official business in New Delhi on a certain day, it's best to arrive a few days' earlier so you can catch up on sleep!